After Gao Shun carefully observed the terrain, he called the commander Xue Lan and Feng Cheng over and pointed to the terrain opposite to arrange the task.

It is impossible to break through the front of this terrain. As long as the opponent has enough arrows and food, no matter how many people go up, they will die. The key to victory or defeat is not the position in the middle of the mountain road, but the crossbow positions on the hillsides on both sides. Take the crossbow positions and stand high, and the position in the center of the mountain road will be destroyed without attacking.

Of course, the positions on the hillside are not easy to capture, and they can only be bitten a little bit, and casualties are inevitable. However, Gao Shun is confident in this. This narrow terrain is most suitable for elite combat. As long as it is arranged properly, it can often have miraculous results.

Gao Shun had a total of 3,000 infantrymen. In addition to the 700 elite troops known as the trap camp, there were 2,500 infantrymen. Lu Bu stationed in Guanzhong for many years and recruited many Bingzhou people, with a total force of more than 15,000 and more than 3,000 cavalrymen. The remaining more than 12,000 infantrymen were the most refined by the 3,000 people led by Gao Shun. This time, Lu Bu asked Gao Shun to fight for the sake of his merits and could not let the Liangzhou people dominate.

Gao Shun asked Xue Lan to set up a formation directly opposite the mountain road and prepare for an impact. Feng Cheng led his troops into the north hillside, and he led the central army, including the trap camp, to control the overall situation and be ready to support him at any time.

Feng Cheng had four songs, more than 800 people, including 200 crossbows. Gao Shun asked him to pull all the crossbowmen out, using what as the combat unit, fighting for each point at a time. The terrain was unfavorable, the range of the bow was not enough, and only the strong crossbow could play a role. The crossbow's firing rate was slow, and in terms of what, the number could be used to make up for the insufficient firing rate and form an advantage in the local area.

This is very safe, and the only flaw is that it is time-consuming. The purpose of setting up a formation in this terrain is to provide early warning and gain time. As long as the task can be completed, the other party will not defend the formation. Therefore, Gao Shun's request is also very simple: don't hurry, take it slowly.

Feng Cheng bowed to take the order, turned around and prepared to leave, but was called out by Gao Shun again.

"Two things." Gao Shun stretched out two fingers. "One, no one is allowed to kill himself; two, no one is allowed to enter the opponent's range, and no one is allowed to leave the shield of the personal guard."

Feng Cheng nodded. He knew what Gao Shun was worried about. The Jiangdong Army's archers were sophisticated and were best at long-distance sniping. This has been confirmed by the news sent by Zhao Qu. Lu Su was able to successfully conquer Hongnong City, and the accurate shooting played a key role. The team rate among the defenders in the city, Du Bo suffered heavy losses in the first round of shooting, which directly caused the command to fail and morale collapse.

When the opponent is condescending and terrain cover, it is easiest to succeed with a strong crossbow and long-distance sniping is the easiest to succeed. Gao Shun reminded him not only him, but also his subordinates Qu Junhou and Du Bo who are responsible for front-line combat. Those people will be the opponent's first choice targets for the opponent's shooter.

Feng Cheng returned to his position and explained the mission to the four Qu Junhous. In order to minimize the losses, he circled a large circle, and the farthest place almost reached the riverside, far beyond the opponent's range, and chose a relatively easy-to-climb terrain. He first sent a sword and shield to the mountain to establish a position, and then sent a crossbowman to set up a formation to form a long-range attack to cover other infantrymen into the position one by one.

Seeing Gao Shun's troops' deployment, Hou Tiancheng, the Jiangdong Army, who was ordered to block the attack, knew that he had encountered an opponent. The opponent had more than ten times the strength of the troops and had enough patience. It was only a matter of time before he broke through the position. While adjusting the deployment, blocking the attack layer by layer, he sent people to inform Jiang Qin.

The two sides fought fiercely on the hillside, fighting one by one.

——

Jiang Qin carefully asked the scout about the details related to the scout at the schematic diagram drawn by Tian Cheng, and couldn't help laughing.

He had already guessed who the general of the Bingzhou Army with the surname Gao was. The King of Wu once mentioned Gao Shun, saying that he was a general under Lu Bu who was comparable to Zhang Liao. Zhang Liao was the cavalry of the commander of Zhang Liao. He was good at marching and was good at training troops, and was very similar to the combat style of the Jiangdong Army.

It seems that the emperor is really eager to take Hongnong. He not only sent Huangfu Jianshou, the son of Huangfu Song, the young and strong sect in the Liangzhou clan, as the vanguard general, but also sent elite troops in the Bingzhou clan. This is almost the strongest infantry that the emperor can produce.

Jiang Qin wrote this news into his daily report to inform Lu Su. There are several names that are very important and need to be paid attention to. Once it appears, it must be reported immediately. When considering the entire situation, the military will track the positions of these key figures to judge the other party's tactical intentions.

Hangu Pass was built along the hillside and river valley, long from north to south, with 1,23,000 steps, narrow from east to west, less than 1,500 steps, and wider from only 1,500 steps. Jiang Qin had limited troops and gave up half of the city in the south and reduced his troops to Yacheng in the north. For a long time, the imaginary enemies of Hangu Pass were all from the north, and Yacheng was built on the north side, which was conducive to the generals observing the situation and commanding in front of the battlefield. The walls of Yacheng were very thick and the city tower was also very high, with granaries, armories and wells for water collection, which were conducive to defense.

Jiang Qin had two thousand people, divided into ten songs. In addition to the four songs that followed him, there were six songs. The Yingchuan County soldiers had just accepted his command for less than half a year. It was after Yuan Tan launched the Henan offensive and he was transferred to Yingchuan. In the past six months, he had conducted rigorous training on these people, but had not yet been tested with practical combat.

Now the opportunity is here. Jiang Qin thinks Gao Shun is a good opponent, and it should be an ideal result for these recruits to play against Gao Shun. He picked out three songs from it and ordered them to set up a formation on Hengling on the west side. According to different terrain, each formation is separated by one or two miles, so that they can see the situation ahead and be prepared for the battle in time, without directly intervening in the battle.

In order to avoid the collapse of these new recruits, Jiang Qin picked out a bench from his personal guards, both as the supervisor team and the counselor.

——

Jiang Qin's arrangement brought a lot of trouble to Gao Shun. Although he was mentally prepared and patient enough, he was tortured by the Jiangdong Army's resistance. Each position took him one to two days to survey the terrain, arrange tasks, and climb step by step to have the opportunity to fight against the Jiangdong Army. He spent most of his time entering the position and preparing for battle. There was not much time to fight. The Jiangdong Army used the terrain to block and shoot and kill with cold arrows. Once he found that the disparity between the people and the situation was unfavorable, the Jiangdong Army would voluntarily withdraw from the position.

After a few days, although they successfully seized three positions, the losses were not small. The casualties accumulated more than 200 people, and the arrows consumed were even more amazing, but the harvest was very limited. Apart from pushing the front line to the middle of the mountain, they did not even get a head. According to the soldiers in front of the battle, they shot a few people with strong crossbows, which was all. The other party was very alert. It was rare to get a hand within a hundred steps, and there was only a chance to shoot outside a hundred steps, but the opponent had complete armor. Even if he used a six-stone crossbow, he could only shoot outside a hundred steps, and it was difficult to shoot.

Gao Shun was a little anxious, but fortunately Huangfu Jianshou could understand his difficulties. Not only did he not urge him, but he comforted him. The Jiangdong Army was good at mountain warfare, and it was well-equipped. It was good that you could fight like this. Huangfu Jianshou took out wine and meat to reward the soldiers who went into battle to inspire morale. In addition to appease Gao Shun, Huangfu Jianshou reported to the emperor. The Jiangdong Army was trained and judged based on the current situation, it would take at least ten days to push the position under Hongnong City. I hope the emperor will remain rational and not rush to achieve success, so as not to cause unnecessary casualties.

After receiving the news from Huangfu Jianshou, the emperor knew that he could not be anxious, but he was still anxious.

It takes half a month to see Hongnong City, how long will it take to conquer Hongnong City? One month or two months, or half a year? He knew that Hongnong City was not easy to capture, but he really didn't have that much time. If Hongnong City, which was guarded by only two thousand people, was consumed for a few months, the purpose of restraining Sun Ce's troops would be vain. By the time he took Hongnong step by step, perhaps Huang Zhong had already captured Hanzhong, and Sun Ce's main force might have directly attacked Guanzhong.
Chapter completed!